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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Georgetown University researchers say common drugs used to treat epilepsy patients may lead to schizophrenia.
A history of seizures during infancy leaves a person at significantly higher risk of developing schizophrenia later in life, but researchers aren't sure whether the seizures themselves or the drugs used to treat them are to blame. A study at Georgetown University Medical Center brings the scientific community closer to an answer.
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Results of the study suggest antiepileptic drug (AED) treatments like phenobarbitol may trigger schizophrenia-like behaviors in its users when given during the brain's developmental period. Animal models that received AEDs during critical periods of brain development showed an increase in such behaviors.
[The study] raises important questions regarding the side effects of a widely-used class of drugs, Guillermo Palchik, doctoral student in the department of pediatrics at GUMC, was quoted as saying. Phenobarbital and other AEDs are not only used as a treatment for seizures, but more generally in the treatment of migraines, neuropathic pain and mood disorders, among other ailments, and can be considered drugs of abuse.
SOURCE: Presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 2009
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